Infosys, arguably India's most respected technology company, along with its head of worldwide sales and marketing, Phaneesh Murthy had been sued for wrongful termination and sexual harassment.

Reka Maximovitch, who used to work as Murthy's executive secretary at the company's Fremont, California office, filed the charges. Murthy was then number three in Infosys' corporate hierarchy and its highest paid employee.

Quick to limit the fallout, Infosys reached an out-of-court settlement with Maximovitch this year. On May 11, it announced it would pay $3 million to Maximovitch but retain all rights to proceed with legal action against Phaneesh Murthy. Insurers paid half the settlement amount.

An unruffled Phaneesh Murthy moved on to better things. Phaneesh, who quit Infosys when news about the case broke out, set up Primentor, a BPO advisory firm.

In July, iGate Global Solutions, a subsidiary of the US-based $500 million iGate Corporation, acquired a majority stake in Quintant, a Bangalore BPO start-up and appointed Phaneesh Murthy as CEO of the merged entity.

On October 3, Jennifer Griffith, another former Infosys employee, filed a lawsuit against the IT major and Phaneesh Murthy. Filed in the same court as the earlier one, the suit alleged that Murthy sexually harassed Griffith while she was employed at Infosys.

Phaneesh Murthy has called the allegations 'baseless' and said he would 'fight the hell' out of the case.

Text: Priya Ganapati

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